Tom Smithers was very proud of his garden. For him, it was the best he has ever done. He spent most of his time of his pension in his garden to make it better and better. Sometimes he also was a winner of a contest in the small village he is living in. He had many reasons to be proud of his garden. But one day, he noticed, something was missing. First, he didn’t notice, but after a few minutes walking around he saw some footprints on the ground. He followed them to the place where his tomatoes were. But they were missing. It seemed like someone stole them. But he thought it was a kids joke. But then, he noticed, that the water can was missing, too. He went back into his house and took a net, which should hold back birds and other animals. He filled the can with water again, cast some water on the plants and put it in his summerhouse. But on the next day, he noticed something was missing again. He walked around and after a few minutes he went to his trees. An apple tree was almost total empty. This wasn’t a small joke, it was a crime! But he wanted to catch the thief on his own. At night, when it was totally dark and there was no noise, he sat on his tree and waited for the thief. In his right hand, he had a baseball bat and in his left hand a flashlight. He looked up to his clock: 11:30 pm. But there was no thief. He waited and waited and got more and more tired. After some hours he fell asleep. When he woke up, it was already morning. He went outside and looked what was missing. He noticed that someone has been in his summerhouse. The water can was empty again. And some apples were missing too. He wanted to give himself another try. He set up traps everywhere in his garden. The traps were small holes, but big enough, that a person could fall in it and that the person would be stuck and he also fixed a net at the apple trees. Two holes were around them, one at the back entrance of the garden, some around his other plants and one at his summerhouse. Nobody should touch his plants and trees without asking him, Tom Smithers, the owner of the prettiest garden in Sertian Town. Maybe it wouldn’t work, but then. He would call the police. But next day, he found a small girl in his net, his trap at the apple tree. It looked like she used a ladder to get the apples. With an angry, but also a serious voice he asked slowly:”Why did you steal all the apples and drank the water? Why didn’t you sleep in your bed at home?” First she began to sob, then, she started crying. He tried to make her stop crying but then he noticed someone other was watching him. A small boy stood at his fence and maybe he thought, the owner of the garden wouldn’t see him. But there were feet and hair, which could be seen, so Tom caught the boy too. Tom asked the same questions and the boy tried to answer them. He was a bit older than the girl. The boy explained that they don’t have a family and escaped from the children’s home. They lived badly there so they wanted to escape. But living on the street isn’t better, the boy explained. “Just your apples were better than the food in the children’s home.” he said. A moment, Tom was proud, but than he remembered, that they had stolen his apples. “But why did you steal my apples? They don’t belong to you and it was much work for me to grow up all the plants. You trampled down some of my roses. How do you want to repay that?” He asked with a loud voice. But than he noticed something red at the arm of the boy. Dry blood! It looked like they didn’t just steal from his garden because it looked like something bit in the arm of the boy. He decided to help the children first. He brought them into the kitchen to disinfect the boys wound. He gave them some apples out of his garden and listened to their story. The more he listened, the more he understood why they didn’t want to stay at the children’s home. It was one of the most terrible places he has ever heard of. They said that they hit the children there. So he understood why they felt save at his home. But they should help him with the garden like filling the holes. He let them stay a few days before he thought of something crazy. Should he adopt them? He even didn’t know the names or how old they were. But than something happened, what nobody expected. In the newspaper, there were the pictures of the children. In the article he read something strange. He read that the children were thieves, who tried to become children of many families. But some day, they robbed them. They did this many times and now the police noticed that these were the same children in every case. So what should he do? He thought of calling the police but he had another plan. He asked them to help in his garden to let some plants grow up. And in the night, he set some traps up again, but this time at the entrance to the garden. He locked up the main entrance. After a few days he hoped, it wouldn’t be the thieves but at night he heard a loud noise. He went down to the doors and had a look. Then he saw something in the garden. The garden door was opened, so they had to be in the garden. He heard the two swearing. Next day, he called the police to collect the thieves, which had learned the lesson. But when Tom turned around and looked in his garden and saw the hole, he noticed, he had taught himself a lesson, too.